American Apparel to Remain in Downtown L.A.
American Apparel, whose company slogan is “Made in Downtown L.A.,” will be able to live by that for at least another decade, as the company renewed a 10-year lease with landlord Meruelo Maddux Properties.
Real estate brokers who worked the transaction said American Apparel executives were seriously considering moving from its longtime home at Seventh and Alameda streets in Los Angeles when its previous lease expired at the end of 2008. Company officials were eyeing locations such as a former Boeing plant in Long Beach, Calif., but in the end decided to stay put despite the tenuous position of its landlord.
Meruelo Maddux filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March and was subsequently de-listed from the NASDAQ exchange.
American Apparel had been operating on the property without a lease since January, paying Maddux on a monthly basis.
About 5,000 workers are based in the Alameda factory. American Apparel also owns a knitting mill in Orange County, which it acquired last year.—Robert McAllister
